Notes on the Latin Text
[…]is. Eructavit cor meum verbum bonum dico ego opera mea regi lingua mea ca [continued on verso]
This page begins with the ending of a lost chant: “…is”. Because the lyrics to graduals can be drawn from such a variety of different biblical texts, we cannot make an educated guess as to what is being continued from Leaf 41 verso. [1] Unlike the other leaves, there is no red “off” marking ending this phrase. Beginning with the large blue letter is a gradual with text taken from Psalm 44.2 (Latin Vulgate Bible).
Peculiarities on the Page
- This is the skin side of the vellum page. Hair follicles can be clearly seen on the top right corner.
- The ink used on the blue capital letter “E” has bubbled, perhaps indicating a slightly incorrect ink formula used by the scribe.
- Like on 37 verso, a small guide letter ‘e‘ can still be seen inside the large blue ‘E’.
- The binding edge of the leaf shows markings of having been sown, most likely into a quire of manuscript pages and then to the binding. For a video on manuscript making, click here.
- This leaf (both recto and verso) uses the C clef to denote the musical key, as opposed to the F clef used on Leaf 37. The C clef sits on the second line of every staff. [2]
- Markings on the verso side of this page are clearly bleeding through on to this side (especially around the third staff).
- There is marginalia on the right hand side of the page. It looks to be the numbers “42” written in pencil, which matches the leaf number as documented by the UBC RBSC.
- The bottom right corner of the page is very worn, presumably because of turning the pages of the gradual book. This indicates that the manuscript was used regularly.
- There is a very noticeable circular cut out on the bottom of the leaf. This perhaps indicates there was a hole in the hide used to make the vellum, or that the missing piece was cut out for another purpose. Notice the same kind of cut out on Leaf 37 but in a slightly difference position.
[1] James W. McKinnon. “Gradual (i).” Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press, accessed April 20, 2015,http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/11576.
[2] David Hiley. “Clef (i).” Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press, accessed April 22, 2015, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/05927